Draft mechanism



w. A. S'TEARNS.

DRAFT MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1|, 1918.

Am M 6 l Patented @ctllfi, i922 w rTEa A. strEaEns, o or roAeo, ifmnors, ASSEGNOR 1 0 AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES, or or-xIcAe iLLrnois, A conrona'rron on NEW JERSEY.

DRAFT MECHANISM.

Application filed November if, 1918. Serial no. 261,953.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to draft mechanism.

Although a given type of railway car mayhave substantially the same body construction, it is found that the body bolsters of these cars may differ considerably. for instance, some may be wide and some narrow. It is well understood that the body bolster has a tendency to turn over under the influence of buffing strains transmitted through the upper partof the draft arm members, and to prevent this turning action, the lower part of the draft arm members is placed to bear against the lower part of the bolster, thus maintaining the bolster in a state of equilibrium in so far as the turning moments are concerned.

However, where the body bolsters of different cars vary in their widths and draft arms of the same dimensions are required, some means must be provided to prevent the bolsters from turning over under the influence of buffing strains.

Accordingly, the object of my invention is to make'it possible'to use draft arms of the This and other objects are accomplished by means of the arrangement disclosed on the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which- Figure 1. is a fragmentary plan view of draft mechanism embodying my invention; Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevation of the same; i Figure 3 is a sectional view taken in the plane of line 33 of Figure 1; and,

, Figure 4 is a sectional view taken in the plane of line 44: of Figure 1. Figure 5 is a fragmentary elevation of my invention showing a narrow bolster and means for preventing same from tilting.

The various novel features of my invention will be apparent from the following description and drawings and will be par- A. Srn'anne, 1

ticularly pointed out in the appended claim.

Referring to the figures of the drawings, it will be noted thaa I have shown railway car draft mechanism including a T-shaped body bolster l0 and draft arm membersll, the forward portions. of which receive a coupler shank 12. The upper portions of the draft arm members 11 near the rear thereof are provided with depressions 13 for the reception of the upper part or flange of the body bolster 10, whereby bufling strains are transmitted to the upper partof'the body bolster, which, if the lower part of the body bolster is unsupported, in so far as bufling strains are concerned, would cause the body bolster 10 to turn over. However, as mentioned above, it is the practice to have the lower portion of the draft arm members engage the lower portion of the body bolster to counteract any tendency of the body bolster to turn over, or, in other words, to equalize the turning moments.

The draft arm members 11 of constant dimensions which I have provided are to be used in connection with body bolsters, the widths of which vary. It is apparent, there fore, that if an operative connection isvto be provided between these bolsters of various widths and the draft arm members, some compensating means must be provided which is insertible in the variable space between the draft arm members and the lower portion or flange of the bolster. Accordingly, I have provided draft arm members 11 which will accommodate the widest bolster, and where these draft arm members are applied to bolsters which are of less than maximum width, compensating means are inserted between the draft arm members and the body bolster to provide an operative connection between the draft arm members and the lower portion of the bolster to acomplish the desired result. In this particular instance I have provided castings let, the forward portions of which are secured to the draft arm members 11 by rivets 15, the castings extending rearwardly to engage the lower portion of the body bolster, thereby forming an operative connection between the draft arm members and the lower portion or flange of the body bolster "for equalizing the turning moments resulting from bufling action. To prevent shearing of the rivets, these castings are provided with shoulders 16 which engage the rear ends of the draft arm members 11. While the draft arm members 11 may be of a given length and the bolsters varied in width, the compensating castings may be of the desired dimensions to fill the space between the draft arm members and bolster.

In the event that a body bolster with a lower flange of less width than the one shown in Figure 2 is used, a longer casting 14.- will be employed. In such case the buffing force is transmitted through the lower part of the casting 14 and bottom part of bolster 10. The latter is prevented from turning over in a counter clockwise movement, as viewed in Figure 2, by the upper part of the casting ll which under the conditions imposed, will lie directly under and be in engagement with the under surface of the upper flange of the bolster. In any event, the space between the body bolster and the adjacent end portions of the draft arms 11 will be filled to maintain the bolster in an upright or balanced position.

It is my intention to cover all modifications of the invention falling within the spirit and scope of the following claim.

I claim:

In draft mechanism, a T-shaped bolster having upper and lower flanges and an imperforate web, a draft arm extending over the bolster and being operatively connected to the upper flange thereof, and compensating means insertible in a variable space between said draft arm and the lower flange of the bolster and unattached to but engaging only the latter for preventing thebolster from turning over as a result of buffing strains.

Signed at Washington, D. C., this of November, 1918.

WALTER A. SlEAB-NS. 

